That's certainly NOT how it used to be. It cost my Aunt thousands to get her annulment in the 60's. The only people who could get them were people of money.
I'll do a little research but I doubt your story...first of all, in the 60's, Catholics didn't have thousands of dollars to do anything and I know people got annulments. While people were certainly expected to reimburse the parish for certified main, long distance calls, notary fees, attorney fees, etc...I don't believe that there were extraordinary expenses involved providing monies to the parish....I will check it out.